Rioters given tough sentences, MoJ figures show
The Ministry of Justice has today released statistics on the outcomes of suspects involved in the recent riots, showing that a much higher percentage of defendants were remanded in custody than usual.
The figures show that 1,566 suspects have had initial hearings at magistrates’ courts.
In cases where a defendant is on remand, 66% were remanded in custody. By comparison in 2010, only 10% of those brought before magistrates’ courts were remanded in custody.
Of those cases where the defendant has been convicted and sentenced, 45% received a custodial sentence, with an average sentence of five months. For equivalent offences in 2010, 12% of defendants were given prison sentences, with an average sentence of 2.5 months.
For those cases where the age of defendants is known, 22% (320) were aged 10-17 and 1,161 were adults, while 91% of defendants were male.
Comments
The haste in which these
The haste in which these cases have been dealt with by the courts have let the cat out of the bag and upheld the accusation that solicitors are spinning cases out for more money
Lack of understanding
A guilty plea in the magistrates' court pays either a lower standard fee, a higher standard fee, or a non-standard fee. There are "lost fees" within each of those bands, this essentially means that the most profitable way to dispose of a case is rarely to 'spin it out' but instead dispose of it quickly.
A number of factors collided in these cases to enable them to be disposed of quickly, most notably all day court sittings and a massive diversion of resources (judiciary, lawyers, police) to ensure the system proceeded in the way in which it did. It was also greatly assisted by the fact that most defendants were in custody. It is doubtful whether those factors could be extrapolated across the system in a sustainable manner. In principle however I know of few if any criminal law litigators who would be opposed.
I am not sure whether you are really interested in the facts, but the same is the case with police station cases, they also pay a fixed fee, and you would then have to do 2 x the fixed fee for free before earning any more money (only a tiny number of cases are like that), so again the profit is in the speed.
The same is true in the crown court where the fee is fixed - full stop. The quicker it is dealt with the more profitable it is.
I am pleased that there is some scrutiny of the system; our complaint for many years has been that we are hampered by inefficiencies in the system that do not lie at our door.